Am I getting what Im paying for ?

Take a look at your Internet service bill, or contact your Internet Service Provider (ISP) to determine your "advertised speed". The advertised speed of residential broadband connections usually ranges from a few hundred kilobits per second (256kbps - 768kbps) to tens of Megabits per second (5 Mbps - 50 Mbps). While results vary between regions and providers, you should verify the exact advertised downstream and upstream speeds you're subscribed to with your ISP. Also, make note if the speeds are in kilobits per second or Megabits per second.

With residential connections, it is common that downstream (download) speed is several times higher than the upstream (upload) speed.

Once you've determined your advertised downstream/upstream speed, you can determine your actual current speed by using our:

Alternatively, try one of the third party websites that test internet connections (speedtest.net is very common and reliable test, for example).

Note that your "advertised speed" is often publicized in terms of "up to X Mbits/s", which in essense means that it is only a theoretical maximum, and Megabits are different than Megabytes. You should be content if you're getting 90%, or something close to that number, considering protocol overhead, and the fact that residential broadband is oversubscribed and shared between many customers (regardless of the technology used). Also, actual speeds tend to vary, and may be lower during peak times.

Note: In data communications, speed is measured in kilobits or megabits per second, while in data storage, capacity is measured in kilo/mega/gigabytes. See our bits/bytes conversion calculator for a better understanding.